I remeber well early discussion saying that "we" should avoid invovling the warlords cos they weere in their own way as much a paort of the problem as the Taliban. Yet, once it was realised you needed boots on the ground, the warlords were on board.
Also, deliberately targeting marginal agricultural water systems was vindictive. You end up catching crap for that. Oh....we did. keep to the Fen Causeway
The important thing was to have a war, any war, and kill somebody. Sun Tzu, it was not. The Fates are kind.
Now, whether it was effective is another matter entirely. Whether it could have been effective is a wholly third issue.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
So you exemplify my point.
Had to attack somebody. Didn't matter who. The Fates are kind.
Further, what they really wanted all along was to attack Saddam Hussein (no, this isn't hindsight, we know that from leaked memos - sufficiently unflattering memos to be pretty sure that the leak wasn't orchestrated), so it seems rather unlikely to me that they'd invent Been Forgotten out of thin air if they were just looking for a scapegoat. Especially since it would risk upsetting their lucrative deals with Been Forgotten's Saudi friends and family.
Now, I'm not doubting the Bush regime's mendacity, but blaming Been Forgotten wasn't in their selfish interest in the first place.
The killing that continues in Afghanistan can be laid at the feet of the Taliban for its desire to re-impose its murderous, repressive will on the unwilling citizens of that country and the Bush administration for mismanagement and abandoning the legitimate work in Afghanistan for misadventure in Iraq.
I am increasingly less convinced that Afghanistan would have worked out even if the Americans hadn't gone on a goose chase in Vietraq. The mindset of the people running the war was simply ill-suited to the kind of war they were running.
It is possible that it could have worked if it had been managed properly from the start. But I'm not sure it would.
Yes, I pretty much said this in an earlier diary, when I stated that the chances for success in Afghanistan "were not good even before Iraq." I just objected to Mr. bil pinning the whole Afghanistan thing on American emotions, i.e., blood lust. Stupidity might have been a more acceptable explanation, in fact. I know people were upset by 9/11, but unless al-Qaeda was challenged in Afghanistan (I'm not sure the Taliban's low level offer to turn over Bin Laden was sincere) I believe there would have been more attacks planned there. Unfortunately, the way things have turned out, we're not better off today. Iraq and the lack of progress in Afghanistan have only added to the army of those that want to harm us in the name of Islam. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
